More beer travels: Maine
As I sit here sipping a Dogfish Head Aprihop Ale (truly one of the sublime delights of the season), I'm catching up on my recent beer travels. At the beginning of April, we went to Maine, Connecticut, New York, and Washington, D.C., in a span of 2 weeks. Just prior to that, I had gone to Atlanta and Macon, Georgia, for a weekend.
First, let me dispense with the Georgia part of the trip. As is the case with Memphis, Georgia is not generally thought of as a beer mecca, but there are things worth seeking out there. Of note are the Sweetwater Brewing Company in Atlanta, makers of damned fine beer and awfully nice folks (I've spent several days "working" there in exchange for beer, a practice which in their earlier days was probably more widespread than it is now), and Manuel's Tavern, an historic bar near the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library (see this).
After a hellish trip back from Atlanta (flight delays), we set off for Maine, to do some wedding planning. Of course, no trip to Bar Harbor would be complete without a visit to our friends at the Bar Harbor Brewing Company, Tod and Suzi Foster (no relation). Suzi happened to be in Europe while we were visiting, but Tod was kind enough to chat for a while and to let us taste his two newest beers, which will be released this summer. I should mention that those who are coming to our wedding will have the chance to taste all the goodness that Tod and Suzi produce, since Bar Harbor Brewing is the sole provider of beer at our wedding reception.
I've somehow lost my tasting notes on these beers, so I'll have to go on my month-old recollection. The first new beer is a blueberry ale. It's almost mandatory for Maine brewers to have a blueberry beer (though Sweetwater in Atlanta makes what may be the best one I've ever tried), so it was not really a surprise that BHBC decided to wade into this market.
Their blueberry beer is based on the Harbor Lighthouse Ale, an English mild which also forms the base for their ginger and peach flavored ales. Blueberry beers don't especially excite me, but this is a very nice one. The blueberry flavor is subtle and the beer is not too sweet. It's light, refreshing, and will taste very good on a hot summer day.
Then there's the as-yet-untitled "special amber." This beer was envisioned as a barleywine, but apparently it didn't quite end up with high enough gravity. But the finished product was yummy and Tod liked it. So "special amber" it is. It is about 8% alcohol as I recall, and one certainly notices the punch, though not so much as to be unpleasant. It has a very lovely deep amber color and lots of malty sweetness. Despite only coming in the trademark large bottles, it's definitely a sipping beer.
Of course we also had some of the out-of-this-world Cadillac Mountain Stout, the best selling and most acclaimed beer BHBC makes. I've written about it before. It is the beer I'd most like to be stranded on a desert island with. In fact, if I could be guaranteed a lifelong supply of it, I'd volunteer for desert island stranding, I think...
A few pictures of the Maine trip can be found on our other blog.
First, let me dispense with the Georgia part of the trip. As is the case with Memphis, Georgia is not generally thought of as a beer mecca, but there are things worth seeking out there. Of note are the Sweetwater Brewing Company in Atlanta, makers of damned fine beer and awfully nice folks (I've spent several days "working" there in exchange for beer, a practice which in their earlier days was probably more widespread than it is now), and Manuel's Tavern, an historic bar near the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library (see this).
After a hellish trip back from Atlanta (flight delays), we set off for Maine, to do some wedding planning. Of course, no trip to Bar Harbor would be complete without a visit to our friends at the Bar Harbor Brewing Company, Tod and Suzi Foster (no relation). Suzi happened to be in Europe while we were visiting, but Tod was kind enough to chat for a while and to let us taste his two newest beers, which will be released this summer. I should mention that those who are coming to our wedding will have the chance to taste all the goodness that Tod and Suzi produce, since Bar Harbor Brewing is the sole provider of beer at our wedding reception.
I've somehow lost my tasting notes on these beers, so I'll have to go on my month-old recollection. The first new beer is a blueberry ale. It's almost mandatory for Maine brewers to have a blueberry beer (though Sweetwater in Atlanta makes what may be the best one I've ever tried), so it was not really a surprise that BHBC decided to wade into this market.
Their blueberry beer is based on the Harbor Lighthouse Ale, an English mild which also forms the base for their ginger and peach flavored ales. Blueberry beers don't especially excite me, but this is a very nice one. The blueberry flavor is subtle and the beer is not too sweet. It's light, refreshing, and will taste very good on a hot summer day.
Then there's the as-yet-untitled "special amber." This beer was envisioned as a barleywine, but apparently it didn't quite end up with high enough gravity. But the finished product was yummy and Tod liked it. So "special amber" it is. It is about 8% alcohol as I recall, and one certainly notices the punch, though not so much as to be unpleasant. It has a very lovely deep amber color and lots of malty sweetness. Despite only coming in the trademark large bottles, it's definitely a sipping beer.
Of course we also had some of the out-of-this-world Cadillac Mountain Stout, the best selling and most acclaimed beer BHBC makes. I've written about it before. It is the beer I'd most like to be stranded on a desert island with. In fact, if I could be guaranteed a lifelong supply of it, I'd volunteer for desert island stranding, I think...
A few pictures of the Maine trip can be found on our other blog.
posted by Eric | 5:08 PM
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